Premise - The crew is commissioned to steal information off the rutter off of the "Seven Stars", a ship that will soon be sitting in the harbor waiting to be unloaded. The PC's will not meet the actual client, or know who it was that hired them. In reality, the client is one of the factional leaders within House Ceruliori itself, a fact that will cause issues later in the complication phase. Before this phase, there should be vignettes with a few of the PC's.
1) Interlude - The PC's are gathered at the local watering hole in the cheapest entertainment quarter of the Barca Povera, playing cards against some other folks. A gang of several drunken bravos comes in, looking for trouble. They are led by Apolino Piselli, a son of Tristan's enemy Cassiopea Piselli. He is a skilled swordsman, always looking for someone he can prove himself against. Tonight he and his friends are slumming, intending to get in a brawl down south, go whoring, and wrecking a place up. The PC's bar is just a place they happened upon. The fight will be witnessed by someone who works for Signore LaVorna, who will tell them to visit the Palazzo LaVorgna in three days. Signore LaVorna will already know a fair bit about the PC's by the time they come by, and decide to hire them on that basis.
2) Planning - The client believes that House Ceruleori (Blue and Gold) found a new source of an expensive and lucrative "puzzolente seed" cargo a rare southern spice much in demand among the elites of the Kehler Lands. They wish to examine the rutter to discover the new location. Ideally, the PC's will steal the information without ever letting the targets know that the information has been compromised - this will require copying the rutter and replacing it. There is a very limited time window to act, during which the "Seven Stars" will be parked out in the harbor. Once the ship is actually docked, it will be under heavy guard, and probably quite crowded. The rutter will be taken from the ship under guard to the family compound. It will then be much more difficult to obtain, probably beyond the player's means. To buy time, the client will arrange for a fire to break out on a ship already docked, which will burn the dock as well. This will buy the PC's a day at least before the harbormaster agrees to bring in the ship. There are likely to be other ships parked out there, unwilling to come ashore till the fire is resolved.
3) "Seven Stars" and Crew - The ship's crew will be quite irate after being at sea for months, and loudly demand shore leave. Also, small boats full of barrels of beer and whores will quickly make their way out to the boat, seeking to sell their wares to the crew. Therefore Captain Oliviero Crispino will set a fire watch and guard, and then most of the crew will go ashore. This means that there will be an irregular flow of small boats to and from the appropriate part of the harbor, allowing the PC's to travel out near the ship without attracting much suspicion. The ship will have a watch of Halleck marines (sergeant and six guards with swords and light crossbows) and eight Gemiri sailors who are mostly asleep, as well as a watch officer Signore Tiburzio (chain shirt, rapier and dagger, wand of webs) and the ship's healer (acolyte). Two swivel guns are loaded on each side of the ship to protect against obvious boarders. They have orders to allow nobody but crew aboard but can be bluffed or tricked.
If the PC's wish to obtain a crew member for some scheme, they will be able to locate one without much difficulty in the wharfside taverns and brothels.
Captain Oliviero Crispino - The captain works hard so that he can play hard when the work is done. His language is as foul as an otyugh nest. Ideal: Master. He is a predator, and the other ships on the sea are his prey. He was cheated of his fair share of the profits, and he wants to get his due. He can't help but pocket loose coins and other trinkets he comes across.
"Seven Stars" - A large sailing ship capable of crossing oceans with the right crew, the ship bears signs of repaired damage visible only to the trained eye, and has a large amount of loot stored in the cargo hold. The galleon is about 110' long, 20-25' wide, and about a 15' drop from the top deck.
The Rutter - It is locked and trapped, probably requiring a gnome tinker to disable it safely, as the lock has a poison needle in it. Furthermore, it is stored in the captain's saferoom, itself locked with a difficult lock and trapped with poison darts firing from above. Copying the relevant information (Notice or Research) will take about ten minutes to copy..
4) Complication - A completely different crew of sneaks has been hired by a different member of House Ceruliori to get the rutter. They do not actually care about subtlety, though they are quiet. They wish to physically obtain the rutter, as they have no means to copy it. They will appear in the scenario whenever it is most appropriate... best of all would be for them to already be there, but hung up at the safe. Perhaps with one man down due to the posion darts.